When the French and Chinese presidents signed a series of agreements around the turn of the century to launch the 2003-2005 Year of Chinese Culture in France and Year of French Culture in China, they agreed the massive people-to-people program would end this summer.

Yet the two countries have actually set up a matrix of exchanges in the arts, outer space, power technology, travel and education that is only likely to grow with the new century.

China and France have each established a cultural center in the other's capital, and the criss-crossing of scientists, writers, teachers and designers between major French and Chinese cities seems to be constantly gaining momentum.

Patrick Michel, who heads the brilliant new Centre Culturel Francais, says, for example, the center will offer everything from Parisian newspapers to French cafe culture, to the latest electronic music from France's digital avant-garde.

Michel, a scholar and Olympic Games enthusiast, says the two sides decided to create "lighthouses" of French culture in Beijing, and of Chinese culture in Paris, which will shine down the decades.

Michel adds that China's new arts colony in the French capital "is the largest Chinese cultural center in western Europe."

The French Cultural Center is throwing a spotlight on the latest trends in art, film-making, music and writing from the one-time home of "The Enlightenment."

Its book club, L'Arbre du Voyageur, holds more than 10,000 titles, including everything from works on the French Impressionist painters to the history "Egypte Ancienne" to the puppet classic "Pinocchio," says Cecile Barbier, the center's public relations officer.

The nearby Mediatheque is sprinkled with Internet-linked computers, and holds "Boite a Musique, where you can listen to compact discs, and Boite a Images, where you can watch digital video discs," says Michel.

"The Mediatheque is a lot like a Parisian library, but more advanced," says the cultural center's trilingual (French, English and Chinese-speaking) Emilie Chaing.

Chaing, who like many of the centre's staff jetted into Beijing from Paris, explains: "Most libraries in Paris don't lend digital video discs or provide equipment to watch them on site."

The entire Mediatheque is wired to the World Wide Web - would-be users across China can skim through its 15,000 books, CD's and DVD's via the cultural center's (French and Chinese-language) website at www.centreculturelpekin.com.cn and reserve titles online.

The website also provides previews of movies to be screened at the center's ultra-modern cinema, which shows films ranging from nouvelle vague classics by Francois Truffaut to contemporary works starring Juliette Binoche.

Films are screened every day of the week, and tickets cost a fraction of the price of those in public theatres.

And Patrick Michel says the new wave of French films rushing into China will not be limited to Beijing: "The French consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou can send these same films to French festivals, Cine Cites and university cine-clubs" along the eastern and southern coasts.

The cultural center will also stage readings by French-language writers, get-togethers with French actors, and "informal music evenings to allow Chinese students to get a closer look at French society," says Michel.

He and other French officials say leading French arts and educational groups hope to expose ever-widening circles of the Chinese populace to French culture.

He says the centre's Edufrance can help Chinese students "find out about university and daily life in France and prepare their applications to study there."

Alliance Francaise (www.alliancefrancaise.org.cn), which provides top-notch French-language training and has its headquarters at the center, has set up training outposts in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Chengdu, Xi'an and Dalian.

"We are now thinking about establishing a new Alliance Francaise site in Qingdao," Michel says.

Christine Chen, press attache at the French Embassy in Beijing, says Shanghai is becoming another major center of Sino-French co-operation.

For example, France set up its Pasteur Institute on public health in Shanghai, along with the French-Chinese Institute of Technology at Tongji University.

Before flying into the Chinese capital to launch the Year of French Culture in China (www.franceenchine.org) last October, French President Jacques Chirac said: "For seven years, our countries have been building a model global strategic partnership.

"We wanted this 'France Year' in China to go ahead in a spirit of festivity, creativity and innovation."

(China Daily March 29, 2005)